Victoria Thaine’s The Kingdom of Doug isn’t just going to be a good short film. Victoria’s an experienced actress and has a professional crew lined up, yet it’s being funded on Pozible, a crowd-funding platform. By using Pozible, The Kingdom of Doug is already a part of something important.

The first thing I noticed about Victoria Thaine is that she is a ‘somebody.’ She has an IMDB page, she’s won awards, her Wikipedia entry has two headings. However, she’s not at all how I imagined a ‘somebody’. She’s polite, charming and incredibly well-informed. Victoria is the type of artist who can recommend obscure podcasts during interviews (‘You need to listen to Jeff Goldsmith!’), and who can walk you through her entire production plan at the drop of a hat. In short, she cares.

The film revolves around Doug and his cult’s final Jonestown-style congregation in the Oakleigh Ice Skating Rink. Before the proverbial Kool-Aid is sipped, Josie, one of Doug’s followers, begins to have second thoughts. Victoria’s had the idea for almost a year, and her knowledge on cults and the people that join them is slightly unnerving. One thing she said stuck out: ‘People think that cult members must be crazy or desperate. That’s not true, they’re usually just ordinary.’

The campaign for The Kingdom Of Doug is going smoothly so far, with almost half the funds raised with three weeks to go. Pozible has been running since 2010, and Kickstarter has been utilizing a similar model for longer, but largely they’re used by amateurs or ‘indies’. Kickstarter’s seen a renaissance with Double Fine and Amanda Palmer’s recent campaigns, but with Film Victoria no longer funding short films Pozible is now not only a viable funding avenue but occasionally, as Victoria tells me, a necessary one.

‘We couldn’t do this any other way,’ she says. ‘It was this or not get it made.’

Between Victoria and her crew’s pedigree, it’s clear that The Kingdom of Doug’s aprofessional-level production, and its use of Pozible is representative of bigger things coming for the Australian media.

One of the rewards offered for supporters of the campaign is being added to a Pinterest board as a member of Doug’s cult. Pozible campaigns are ordinary people donating money to a cause they believe in with the end goal being something bigger than all of them. Based on that reward, I doubt the parallels are lost on Victoria.